Jonestown Tea
by Rainpath
Summary: Sometimes running away does solve your problems, until they come back with a vengeance. Kenzi-centric, trigger warning: sexual abuse.
1. Jonestown Tea

**This is my first venture into _Lost Girl_ fanfiction. I think this show has a lot of potential, it definitely has the makings of a cult TV show. I'm really excited for Season Three, but since I think that the season is going to delve into Kenzi's past, I figured I'd better get my idea out there before it's Jossed. I tried to write it sort of like an episode, but wev. It is what it is. **

**Here is the BIG, FAT TRIGGER WARNING: This story deals with sexual abuse. I think the show heavily implied that Kenzi's stepfather was sexually abusive toward her, and I wanted to write about it. HOWEVER, I understand that this is an incredibly sensitive topic, and I tried to deal with it as carefully as I could. So once again, TAKE HEED OF THE TRIGGER WARNING.**

**Many, many thanks to my wonderful beta reader, Zauberzunge.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Lost Girl_ or the song Jonestown Tea.**

* * *

"And I remember the smell

And the pain

And the shame

And I remember being afraid

And thinking everyday

(every single day)

That it was my fault."

-Otep, "Jonestown Tea" (_Sevas Tra,_ 2002)

_She wouldn't cry._

_She had cried the first time it happened, but it was far from the first time now. She hadn't cried in at least a year, and she viewed that as a source of pride. She was twelve years old, she wasn't a baby! Evan and Lucas cried, her mother and stepfather constantly reminded her. She was old enough not to. _

_She squeezed her blue eyes shut, trying and ultimately failing to ignore the man on top of her. She thought of other things: how long until her mother came home (maybe an hour?), her little brothers asleep in the next room (Evan, six years old, and Lucas, just over four), the litter of kittens her aunt's cat just had (she begged her mother for one, the little black one with green eyes and a white front paw). _

_She could tell he was almost finished by the way he was moving. After two years of this, she'd grown accustomed to figuring out just how long it was going to take before he got up and left her, shaking and bleeding, on the torn sofa in the living room of the tiny, dirty apartment. She was cold, and he was bruising her wrists from pinning them so tightly against her sides. She whimpered almost inaudibly at the pain, but he didn't notice-or, more likely, didn't care. She finally felt his weight lift, and she just laid there, eyes still shut, until she heard the door to his and her mother's room slam shut. She couldn't understand why he was always angry afterward. If anyone should feel angry, it was her. _

_She didn't, however. Feel angry, that is. She'd numbed herself to the rage she felt boiling just under the surface for the sole purpose of not slipping into his room with the steak knife that lay on the counter and slitting his throat after he had gone to sleep._

_She swung her scrawny legs over the side of the couch, running a hand through her dirty blonde curls, trying to tame them before her mother came home and saw them all in disarray. Not that she would ask any questions, she stopped asking a while ago. Now she just frowned._

_Wrapping her discarded blue sweater around her, she slipped into the bathroom, turned on the sink and placed a washcloth under the faucet. When she found it warm enough, she used it to clean the blood and other liquids from the lower half of her body. _

_/_

"Kenzi!" Bo called out as she nearly tripped over a large, heavy cardboard box wrapped in duct tape and inconveniently located in the middle of the living room floor. "What the hell is this?" The succubus was not in the mood for whatever Kenzi was up to. It usually meant something illegal, and Bo had enough on her plate already without having to worry about her friend's schemes.

The younger woman popped her head around the corner, texting furiously. "Don't worry about it, babe. Just something I need to give to Dima," she said cheerfully, glancing up from her cell phone. She scrutinized her best friend's appearance, taking in the exhausted expression and tangled brown hair. "Did you stop for an afternoon snack or something?"

Bo narrowed her eyes. "Very funny," she unzipped the tall black boots and noticed, to her disappointment, some new scuffs. "Damn, I really love these boots," she sighed.

Kenzi, always moving, hopped over the arm of the sofa next to Bo. "So what happened?"

"I just spent the past three hours running from the police station, to the Dal, and all over the rest of the freakin' city for Dyson and Hale. Apparently, there is some serious Dark Fae gang activity going on. Since they can't enter Dark territory, they send me into the Maero's really, really gross hut in the middle of the woods."

Kenzi's face wrinkled in confusion. "Maero?"

Bo shuddered. "Think Bigfoot in desperate need of a manicure," she explained.

"Ew."

The older woman leaned back against the sofa, groaning. Kenzi perked up, seeing the perfect opportunity to drag her friend out for drinks. Bo turned her head to glare at her before she could even form the words in her head.

"No," she said firmly.

"I didn't say anything," Kenzi pouted.

/

"Missing persons case," Hale said, dropping a folder onto his partner's desk. "Fae girl."

Dyson glanced up from the already cluttered surface of the desk. The Maero Bo had gone to interrogate had had plenty of gang dealings in the past, and was definitely in on this new resurgence of violence: blackmail against high-ranking Light Fae officials, three kidnappings, and one murder (that they knew of). The strangest thing, however, was that along with the usual Fae gang members, there seemed to be humans in the mix. At least, according to the source Bo went to go see. Which means that whoever was running this gig had broken the ultimate law, and they wouldn't escape prosecution. He sighed.

"Related?"

"Probably. Fourteen years old. Snatched off the streets downtown. Definite signs of struggle. She's a fire nymph. The whole side of a building was scorched. Her father is a big deal in the weapons trade."

It fit with the other kidnappings, and the murder. Friends and family of those who had power-Tori was practically under house arrest, and Dyson had to pull some strings to get out of protection detail for the Glaive's daughter. The murder, they'd concluded, was a kidnapping gone wrong. You can't use a dead hostage for information or ransom.

"Dyson?"

He was pulled from his thoughts by Hale. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I asked if Bo got anything from the Maero."

"Well, obviously, he says he's not involved, but he does know someone that might be. Do you remember the massive meth deal gone bad a few months ago?"

Hale did. Two drug dealers working together, highly unusual in the first place, thought the other was stealing clients, or ripping him off, or something. One ended up beating the other senseless, and a prostitute, the beaten one's girlfriend, called an ambulance. Of course, a police escort arrived on the scene as well, and both drug dealers were arrested. Turns out, both dealers were involved in a local Russian mob that had their hands mainly in meth and trafficked girls. It had turned out be a boon for the police department, because almost twenty underage girls were freed and a major player in Toronto's narcotics scene was effectively destabilized. What didn't make sense, however, was how they would be involved in something that was specifically Fae.

"So you're saying that you think someone hired a human gang to do the dirty work for them?"

"With the help of some Fae, obviously. They wouldn't be able to accomplish those kidnappings on their own. And I do not believe that the Maero isn't in on this in some way."

"So we have to determine exactly what they're after."

"And I think I have an idea where we can start."


	2. Night Terror

**Thank you again to my beta reader, Zauberzunge.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Lost Girl_ or the song "Night Terror".**

* * *

"I woke up on a bench on Shepherd's Bush Green

A candle at my chest, a hand on his knee

I got up, it was dark

There's no one in the park at this hour

How do I keep finding myself here?

Oh, fight me."

-Laura Marling, "Night Terror" (_Alas, I Cannot Swim_, 2008)

"It sounds like nothing other than the usual vying for status," Trick said after the detectives had explained the strange situation to him. The three of them, plus Bo were sitting around the bar counter of the Dal, sharing information. "Recruiting humans is serious crime. I'm surprised the Morrigan hasn't put a stop to that."

"Maybe she doesn't know," Bo suggested.

"Most likely," Hale added.

"But she _should!_" Trick was indignant. "She should be keeping tabs on the Maero, she knows how much trouble he is. She's gotten very lazy with that type of thing these days."

Hale and Dyson exchanged bemused smirks. Bo caught and allowed herself a small smile as well. Sometimes the bartender acted like an old man griping about the good old days.

"I do have something that you may be able to bribe the Maero with, though," Trick didn't catch the look, and he seemed worried and distracted as he left the bar to go downstairs. Hale turned to Bo and started to speak when the group heard the door to the bar slam shut. Startled, they all turned to the front, but immediately relaxed when they realized it was just Kenzi, returning from seeing her cousin. She waved enthusiastically and made her way to the counter, teetering precariously in impossibly high heels.

"Hey, super-friends!"

"Did you get those drugs to your cousin?" Bo asked teasingly.

"It wasn't drugs!" Kenzi insisted.

"Oh? What was it then?"

Her friend crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her blue eyes, trying for and failing at her best impression of a death glare. Bo laughed.

"Needs some work," Hale informed her, reaching out to tousle her black hair. She jerked backward and stuck her tongue out.

"Mature," Bo rolled her eyes.

All heads turned to the bar again when Trick climbed back up the stairs, with several torn, yellowing sheets of paper. He laid them out on the countertop, then glanced up, suddenly noticing their newest addition. "Oh. Hello, Kenzi," he smiled genuinely. She gave him a small wave.

There were three papers that he had brought up. The first two fit together, as if they had once been one whole. They were marked with black arrows and geometric symbols, all contained within a larger rectangle. The third page was separate. It was written in the same language of geometric shapes as the first two, except here the shapes seemed more complicated. The first pages contained basic geometric shapes such as triangles and quadrangles, while on the third page decagons and what looked like amulets or jewels were drawn in red, blue, and violet inks.

"What's this?" Dyson asked.

"Instructions," Trick replied. "For alchemy. The Maero's main concern has always been with the Golden Fleece, which is actually an important ingredient in most alchemical spells. These instructions show how one could potentially conjure an incredible likeness to the original fleece. Most of his criminal activity involves getting his grimy hands on it. I have no doubts that this is what he's after this time."

"Wait. If it's so precious, do we really want the Maero to get a hold of it?" Hale asked.

"Of course not. That's why this is a fake. However, by the time he figures that out, we'll have the information we need." Trick held out the crumbling pages to Bo, who plucked them out of his hands very carefully.

"So… To Bigfoot again?" Bo turned to rest of the usual team. No one had any objections. She sighed wearily.

"Great."

/

Dyson kicked in the flimsy wooden door of a hut settled so deep in the forest, so far from the city no one who wasn't looking for it would find it.

"Whoa. Dial down the inner wolf, D-man," Kenzi cracked. He ignored her and walked in, the rest following his lead. It was a decrepit old wooden hut, most likely left over from an independent hunter decades ago. There were no lights inside, and Dyson's nocturnal sight kicked in so he could see the decaying furniture and ancient paintings. Immediately, a terrible screeching from the next room shattered the relative quiet of the forest, and all spun into defensive positions.

Crashing from the crude back room came the Maero, his mouth contorted in a scream. He was easily six feet tall, covered in brown and gray hair, with a protruding mandible and large yellow eyes. He looked like some kind of deformed gorilla. His large hands were complete with curved, foot-long claws, which he had raised to attack. When he spoke, his voice sounded like a snake's hiss.

"What makes you think you have any right to be here, Light? I would not be punished for killing intruders in my home!" He swiped long claws in the air for emphasis, and Hale, who was closest, jumped back quickly.

"Man!" he exclaimed.

"You'll do no such thing," Bo said confidently, straightening herself and pulling the alchemical instructions gently from her bag. The others quickly followed in suit, though all were wary of the hideous beast. She stepped forward cautiously, careful of the Maero's wandering, fiery eyes.

"And why is that, succubus?" The Maero's teeth gnashed; ugly, sharp yellow homodonty reminiscent of a crocodile's. Kenzi flashed back to her childhood, the terrifying face and dangerous voice taking her back to her stepfather. She shook her head, banishing the images from her mind.

"Because we have something you want." She explained what the papers were to him, and he glared at her with skepticism in his wild eyes. But the greed for something he had longed for so many centuries overtook his wariness, and he reached out one viciously clawed hand, anxious for the paper. She jerked them away, out of his reached.

"Not so fast," she said authoritatively. "First, tell us what you know about the kidnappings."

The creature hissed again. "I've already told you what I know."

"Nonsense." Dyson stepped forward. "You know all of the gang activity that goes on among Fae. You told Bo next to nothing."

The Maero smirked. "I'm flattered."

"Yeah. Don't be," Hale snarled. The Maero's eyes flashed, but he turned back to Bo.

"All I know is that the human gang meets with their Fae employers in the old Empress Theatre in the city every night. I was called there only once. They paid me for information regarding Dark Fae officials. Now hand it over!" He reached for her again.

"That wasn't so hard now, was it?" Bo let him snatch the papers from her and examine them intently. She herded the group towards the broken door.

Once at the edge of the forest and packing into the car to go back into the city, they decided on a new game plan. They would rendezvous at the Empress around eight o'clock, armed and ready to deal with Fae and human gang members alike.


	3. Lonesome Organist

**Wow! I'm so pleased with how well this story is being received. It's on like, six people's favorites lists and 17 people's alerts and it hasn't even been online for a week. Thank you!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Lost Girl _or the song "Lonesome Organist Rapes Page-Turner".**

* * *

"Now, there, there

I'm a friendly man

I joke about sex because it's funny when you're frightened."

-The Dresden Dolls, "Lonesome Organist Rapes Page-Turner" (_No, Virginia_, 2008)

Bo parked the yellow car three blocks down from the theatre, and she and Kenzi walked the rest of the way. The old, long out-of-business venue was snuggled in a sketchy-looking alleyway beside an equally-abandoned motel. A dirty, worn sign reading "Empress Theatre" was written in elegant, faded font. Twilight was settling in, and the eastern sky was already dark and filled with stars and the sliver of a moon. The two women stayed well away from the entrance, around the corner of the alley that was more well-lit and a good amount of traffic passed, as they could very clearly hear the voices of many loud men speaking in fast Russian. Some men were still entering the theatre. They looked as if they were made of pure muscle. Bo turned to her friend, silently asking for an explanation of the unfamiliar language.

"They're not saying anything important," Kenzi replied to the look. "Just babbling, they seem kind of nervous."

"Then I'm guessing the Fae haven't arrived yet," Bo deduced.

She caught the silhouettes of two men approaching them, and stiffened briefly before recognizing them as Hale and Dyson.

"Anything interesting happening yet?" Hale asked when they were close enough.

"The Fae aren't there, and the gang is nervous, according to Kenzi," Bo told them.

Someone inside the theatre barked an order, and the noise immediately began to quiet to a few rumblings. Kenzi strained her ears, but she couldn't make out anything other than what the man had yelled.

"He just told everyone to shut up, the boss is calling," she translated. The voice rose again, and she relayed the information to her friends. "The boss will be there in ten minutes."

Dyson nodded. "Then we might as well interrupt this before they get here. Maybe we can get the leader to talk."

"Are you sure that's a good-" Bo began, but Hale and Dyson were already moving toward the entrance of the theatre.

"Damn him," the succubus said under her breath and rolled her eyes, but she followed them, beckoning Kenzi to do the same.

Hale and Dyson kicked in the door, weapons drawn, shouting, "Police!"

They demanded that everyone drop any weapons, brandishing the badges. There must have been twenty big guys in the venue, which only gave Bo furth er reason to question her friends' sanity. Sure, they were human, but they were still incredibly dangerous.

As if to prove her point, all havoc suddenly broke loose.

The men started rioting, shouting, and a few shots rang out. Horrified, Bo pushed Kenzi back away from the doorway, screaming, "Go!"

Her friend stood there indecisively for a moment, blue eyes wide, before Bo shoved her again. "Run!" She told her, terror in her dark eyes. Kenzi took the hint and ran down the alleyway, back to their previous hiding place. She lingered, not wanting to leave her friends there.

Inside, Dyson and Hale were attempting to control the crowd. Many of the gang members had just pushed right past the detectives and fled the scene, and Bo hoped Kenzi had enough sense to stay well out of their way. As far as Bo could tell, the previous gunshots had not injured or killed anyone, they were probably fired into the air as a warning. Dyson had already handcuffed the only scrawny guy Bo could see in the gang, and was busy wrestling a heftier guy to the ground. Hale was facing off against two other men, both with nasty snarls fixed to their faces, and she decided that she'd better start there. The others had taken off at this point, and only these guys had stayed. Bo assumed that was because they had something to lose if they ran off too. Good.

She rushed up to one of the men attacking Hale and caught him off guard with a kick. That left a more balanced fight, because he immediately turned to face her with fire in his eyes. He swung, but was far too slow and she ducked, spun, and her fist connected with his face. He clearly wasn't expecting her to be so strong, because he stumbled back in shock before charging her again. She sighed, and stepped easily to the side and let him run face-first into the wall behind her. He fell backward, and she couldn't help the laugh that rose in her throat. It was almost like a cartoon. Hale threw her a pair of handcuffs just as he was finishing with the other guy. Dyson was leaning against a wall, smirking. How insufferable.

"We can take it from here, we're going to the Ash's compound," Dyson informed her. She nodded understandingly.

"What about their employer? He should be here any minute."

Hale shook his head. "We have enough on our plate right here as it is. We'll deal with the boss when we're finished with these losers. We've just got to get out of here quickly."

/

Bo and Kenzi walked into the clubhouse, shutting the door behind them with some finality. It had certainly been a long day, and it was only around ten o'clock. Bo collapsed on the sofa, joined by Kenzi. They both had boxes of Chinese take-out, and sat in relative silence for a few minutes.

"Do you think it was a good idea to leave before catching whatever Big Bad was going to meet them?" Kenzi finally asked.

Bo turned her own chocolate brown eyes to meet her best friend's striking blue ones. She was exhausted, and she didn't want to think about the possible repercussions of not immediately picking up the Fae. On the other hand, she understood Dyson and Hale's reasoning-if they could make the humans talk, then it would be much easier for officials on both sides to deal with the employers because they had broken the ultimate law. She sighed.

"I don't know," she replied. "But we're not going to worry about that right now."

She decided that they couldn't do anything about it now, so what was the use of stressing over it? They would deal with whatever problems cropped up later.

"Uh, Bobo, are you feeling okay?" Kenzi reached a hand up to her friend's forehead. Bo slapped it away playfully.

"I'm fine. Let's watch a movie or something, okay? We'll let our favorite detectives figure this out for now."

/

"I got those police reports on our perps," Hale walked up to Dyson, who was staring intently at the whiteboard. He seemed to hum with anger. "It's mostly normal gang activity-drugs, prostitution, the usual. But you gotta see this." He lifted the file from the top of the stack. Inside was a picture of the scrawny guy, the first one to be arrested. Dyson figured him to be a low-ranking figure, considering how the three other men they had subdued were very strong and at least halfway intelligent. This guy, Sergei Dvorkin, was a dumbass. He didn't cooperate with the police, not even telling them his name until Dyson lifted him up and smashed him aganst the concrete all. When they had stuck him in the Ash's dungeon, he had shouted at them they would regret this, that he had connections that would tear them to pieces. The two detectives couldn't help but laugh.

Hale continued, "He's got a similar rap sheet as a the rest of them, but get this-He's married and has two sons. His wife's name is Halina Dvorkin, no criminal record. His sons are fourteen and sixteen. The police were called to his home many times from 2001 to 2005 for domestic disputes between he and his stepdaughter, Mackenzie Levkov. In 2003, Levkov, who was thirteen, was admitted to the hospital for a broken rib, facial contusions, and a sprained wrist. She told hospital staff that her stepfather had done it, and made claims of sexual abuse, so staff took a picture to document it. However, she recanted later that day and said she'd fallen down a flight of stairs, so no charges were ever pressed. But look who Mackenzie Levkov is."

Hale held up a picture of a skinny little girl with dirty blonde curls, blue eyes staring down, away from the camera. Her right eye was black, her lip was split, and a bruise was forming on her left cheekbone, but the face was unmistakable.

"Kenzi."


	4. Monster

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Lost Girl_ or the song "Monster".**

* * *

"Turn the sheets down

Murder ears with pillow lace

There's bathtubs full of glowflies

Bathe in kerosene

Their words tattooed in his veins."

-Meg & Dia, "Monster" (_Something Real_, 2007)

"Hi Lauren, it's Hale. Quick favor. Could you pull the medical records of someone for me?" The detective had his cell phone to his ear, listening for the doctor's response. She was in the lab of Ash's compound, catching up on some paperwork. She held the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she moved towards her neat, orderly desk. The doctor waited impatiently as the machine booted up from its hibernation, tapping a pen against the keyboard.

"Mackenzie Levkov," he said when she asked for a name.

The blonde doctor pulled the file up on her computer. "Kenzi?" She asked in surprise when she opened the link.

"Yeah, just, um… Bring it down to us? We're in the interrogation room," He told her. He didn't want to tell her about what they had found just yet. There was a reason Kenzi never spoke about it, and why stir up trouble?

After he had hung up, Dyson stepped out of the closed off room where he had been questioning one of the three big guys, who turned out to be the leader of the gang and had been in direct contact with the Fae.

"Is he talking yet?"

Dyson sighed and leaned against the wall. "He won't say much. He's only met two of them. Nashnas, it sounds like, and they do most of the kidnappings. They hired the human gang to take care of things like robbery and threats." He handed Hale a legal pad of haphazardly written, almost incomprehensible notes that were intended to help them keep track of the information they gathered. Not that Dyson's notes ever helped anyone, you needed a freakin' Rosetta Stone to understand them.

Nashnas were vicious, clever creatures that looked like gargoyles. They couldn't usually be found this far north, but they were known for trying to stir up trouble between the sides. They were usually Dark Fae, but tended not to heed the orders of their superiors.

"So he won't tell us where the hostages are?"

"No, he won't. But something tells me Dvorkin won't keep his silence much longer," Dyson said, making a slightly disgusted face. "About that. Bo's on her way, I wanted to tell her what we found out about him."

Hale nodded and glanced at his phone. "Good timing, I just asked Lauren to pull Kenzi's medical records. Maybe they can give us some insight, and then we should actually, you know, talk to her." Hale grimaced when he thought of the implications. "What type of person beats up on a child?"

Dyson's cell phone beeped urgently before he had the opportunity to reply. He opened the text message, noting that Bo was at the compound and would be there in a minute. He glanced back at his partner. "The kind who feels like an inadequate loser? Because this guy certainly is," He offered, shrugging. Hale knew that his partner was more disturbed than his voice let on. He was pacing almost anxiously, and his blue eyes darted from the interrogation room to the door to the rest of the compound. He looked up at the sounds of footsteps coming closer that his over-sensitive ears picked up before Hale's did.

"What's going on?" The succubus asked when she pushed open the heavy door of the viewing room. She glanced inside interrogation at the gang leader. "Has he said anything important?"

"Not particularly," Dyson replied. "But-"

Just then, Lauren came through the door right behind Bo, her nose buried in a file. She looked a little frazzled, and almost bumped into the woman whose affections she craved.

"Bo!" She exclaimed.

Bo reached out to steady the other woman. "Lauren!" She mocked playfully.

The doctor smiled, and Bo returned the gesture. Shaking her head as if suddenly remembering why she was here, the blonde held up the file. "I assume you wanted this?"

Bo looked confused, glancing at the file, then at the doctor. "What is-"

"Actually doc, I wanted to see that." Hale said, greeting both her and Bo.

"Oh. Well, everything was normal until Kenzi was around ten," Lauren started, flipping through the thin file.

"Kenzi?" Bo's happy demeanor instantly changed into worry. "What's wrong with Kenzi?"

"Nothing," Hale assured her quickly. She looked skeptical and crossed her arms ove her chest.

"Bo, one of the gang members is Kenzi's stepfather," Dyson explained. The woman gaped. Kenzi's stepfather? Whenever she mentioned him, which was not often, she would close up and look a little defeated. Bo knew he was abusive in some way, but Kenzi said he'd never hurt her physically. Dyson put his han on her shoulder and nodded for the doctor to continue.

"She started getting urinary tract infections every few months until she was fifteen. She was admitted to the hospital in 2003 because she fell down a flight of stairs," Lauren told them.

Dyson cut her off. "I found her stepfather's police report. It's much more likely that he did it and that was just her cover story."

Bo jerked her head toward him sharply, but Lauren continued to speak.

"When she was sixteen, she collapsed in a subway station due to starvation, and at eighteen had an HIV test, which turned out to be negative. She hasn't seen a doctor since." Lauren sighed. "UTIs, especially that young, are a big red flag for sexual abuse, and the stairway story doesn't seem to hold up, as you said. Her injuries were too focused. Coupled with the fact that she's a runaway…" The doctor trailed off and looked up at the rest of the group.

Bo snatched the document. "So you're all saying that this piece of shit raped her?" She jerked her thumb in the direction of the gang leader, still sitting in the uncomfortable metal chair, poker-faced.

"Not this one, the skinny guy," Hale told her. The woman was shaking with rage as she read the file for herself.

"Bo." Dyson warned, stepping forward.

"No!" Bo yelled, a murderous expression clouding her face. "I'm going to kill the bastard!" In such short time of knowing one another, Kenzi had become the little sister she'd never had, and felt fiercely overprotective of the human, as much as Kenzi would resent that.

"We have to deal with this hostage situation first," Dyson said, trying to talk some sense into her. He was angry too, however well he hid it, but he wasn't going to do anything rash that jeopardized their current priority. "And maybe you should talk to Kenzi first."

Bo closed her eyes, took a breath, and then stared at the medical file still in her hand. Maybe talking to Kenzi before going crazy was a good idea. "Okay. Do you mind if I take this with me?" She asked.

"Go ahead," Hale replied quickly. Bo continued to try and calm herself while the detectives explained the current situation involving the human gang and the Fae.

"We'll see about what we can do to get the Nashnas," Dyson said.

"Good luck."

/

Kenzi was sitting at the bar of the Dal, her heeled boots connecting with the wood of the counter in a leisurely rhythm. She had a whiskey sour in front of her. Not her usual drink, as it was a bit too sweet and sugary for her tastes, but it was alcohol nonetheless, and who was she to turn it down? It was mid-afternoon, so the bar was pretty empty, the only patrons currently being the very dedicated alcoholics. It bothered her slightly that she didn't feel entirely out of place, so she chatted aimlessly with Trick as he ran a washcloth down the length of the countertop.

"_But_, did you know that Canis Majoris is actually that largest known star? It's like, a bajillion times bigger than our Sun. I saw a special on the Science Channel," she babbled while sucking on her straw.

"Really," Trick said, mildly amused at what she tended to talk about when she was tipsy and Bo wasn't around.

As if on cue, the beautiful succubus strode into the pub, her heels clicking steadily on the hardwood floor.

"Hey sista," Kenzi greeted when the older woman took a bar stool beside her. She looked into her friend's face and instantly saw that something was bothering her. "What's wrong?" The girl asked, concerned.

"We need to talk," Bo said, her voice stone-cold. She knew that if she tried to speak any other way, her voice would waver dangerously and tears would spring into her eyes. How could her best friend hide something like that from her? Bo felt as if Kenzi didn't trust her, and that hurt more than the succubus thought it would have. She'd always respected Kenzi's need for privacy where her past was concerned, and Bo was more than happy to give it to her. She'd known that her stepfather wasn't the most pleasant of men, but she hadn't had any idea just _how_ unpleasant he was. Bo could tell it was painful for her friend, but she'd assumed her friend would talk when she needed to. How could it be that she was just learning about this abuse inflicted on the person dearest to her?

"About what? Bo, are you okay?" Kenzi searched her eyes.

"Kenzi, what do you know about Sergei Dvorkin?" The harshness of her voice just came tumbling out. She had meant to be more delicate, she had meant to let Kenzi know she was there for her. Damn it, her words had come out so wrong.

Kenzi froze. All the color drained from her face, and her eyes dropped down to fix on the drink in front of her. Bo could see her hands trembling ever so slightly on the counter and felt even more horrible. She shook her head, black hair falling over her face. That name brought on far too many painful memories. It was a name she had run from and a name she had thought she'd escaped.

"Nothing," she told Bo, lifting her head to face her friend, plastering a fake smile to her face. "Who is that?"

"Kenzi, don't lie," Bo warned. Trick was watching the two women, staying silent for now. He didn't know what going on, but it clearly could not be good.

"Bo, please," the human girl implored her, glancing quickly at Trick to see if he would interrupt. He acknowledged the look and placed a hand on Bo's arm.

"Why don't you take this back to your home," He suggested quietly. Bo sighed, knowing that he was right. Kenzi wouldn't want to talk about this in public, if she was going to talk at all.

"So _not_ the kind of help I wanted," Kenzi glared at the bartender. He shrugged apologetically.

Bo grabbed her friend's hand, and Kenzi realized that since she had to go home at some point, whatever resistance she put up now would make no difference in the end. She allowed herself to be pulled away. This was going to suck, big time.


	5. Gothic Lolita

"If I am Lolita

Then you are a criminal

And you should be killed by an army of little girls

The law won't arrest you

The world won't detest you

You never did anything any man wouldn't do

So it's my fault?

No, gothic Lolita."

-Emilie Autumn, "Gothic Lolita" (_Opheliac_, 2006)

"Sergei Dvorkin is in the gang that's working with the Fae. He's also your stepfather, and according to your medical files he was extremely abusive toward you." Bo said to Kenzi as soon as they left the bar. Kenzi's head jerked up.

"You looked through my medical files?" She asked accusingly.

Bo opened the door to the driver's side of the car. "No. Hale asked Lauren for them, and they showed them to me. Why didn't you tell me he raped you?"

"You had no right to do that," Kenzi said, her voice suddenly turning cold. The invasion of privacy made her feel as though Bo believed every pasrt of Kenzi's life was her business, as if she were nothing more than Bo's...pet.

"But why wouldn't you tell me something like this?" Bo asked when the two women were in the car, driving toward the house. Kenzi turned her head, her icy eyes a mixture of pain and anger. She didn't want to talk about him. He wasn't part of her life anymore. Why was the woman who called herself her best friend making her talk about him? What the hell did she ever do to make Bo want her to be miserable?

"It's not really something I like to dwell on," she mumbled. "Besides, it's not like you've told me everything about your past. It's not a big deal."

Bo looked at her sharply. "Not a big deal?" She repeated, shocked. "Kenzi-"

"Could you just save the lecture, please?" The girl cut her off. She placed her elbow on the car door and leaned her head against her hand, refusing to speak. She closed her eyes to resist the hot tears she could feel forming. Stop crying. It happened a long time ago, she told herself.

The rest of the car ride home was completely silent, Bo mostly keeping her eyes focused on the road ahead while occasionally glancing furtively at the other woman. Kenzi continued to stare absentmindedly out of the passenger window. Bo wasn't used to such quiet from her best friend, as it was like living with the Energizer Bunny most of the time. The older woman was going over a hundred different possible ways the impending conversation could go over, and none of them were appealing to her. None of them changed the fact that Kenzi had been raped, over and over again, by the person who was supposed to take care of her. The thought made Bo so furious her fingers ached from clutching the steering wheel so tightly. She wanted to tear the man's throat out. She wanted to make the bastard regret he'd ever touched her friend in any way.

Bo pulled into her usual parking spot with a little more force than she meant to, and turned off the car. She glanced to her right, where Kenzi was sitting very still, her arms now crossed over her chest and her mouth settled into a scowl. She got out of the car, knowing her friend would follow soon enough.

/

When Kenzi had finally brought herself out of the car and into the house, she'd slammed the front door shut and headed straight to bed, without even acknowledging that Bo was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee. The succubus watched her fighting to hold back tears and suddenly wished she hadn't ever brought up Sergei Dvorkin. Obviously this was something Kenzi wanted to leave in the past, because it hurt too much to talk about. Bo herself wasn't originally going to talk about Kyle until his sister had shown up on their doorstep, and she certainly didn't enjoy talking about the people she had killed before she learned how to control her hunger. Some things are better left alone.

Bo washed the mug and decided to call it a night, but she lay awake in bed for several hours, staring at the ceiling. Images of a very young Kenzi bleeding and crying filled her thoughts. Her stomach hurt, she tossed and turned until the sheets were tangled around her legs. Everytime she glanced at the digital clock at her bedside only a few minutes had passed. An hour later, she'd finally decided to give up on trying to fall asleep and went to check on the Kenzi, as she often did on nights she couldn't sleep.

She tiptoed quietly downstairs and found her friend lying in bed, on her side, above the covers. All the lights in the room were on, and her eyes were wide open although she was staring off into space. Bo leaned against the doorframe, casting a long shadow into the room.

"Would you talk to me, please?" Bo pleaded, coming to sit beside her and running her fingers through the human's long, dark hair. Kenzi barely moved, still angry and hurt. They were both silent for several long minutes, with Bo stroking her hair and Kenzi trying to keep from breaking down.

"It started when I was eight." The younger woman finally broke the silence, her voice a hoarse whisper. Bo nodded, and gripped her friend's hand. She bit the inside of her lip to keep herself from speaking. If she did, Kenzi might close off all over again, and who knows what their relationship would be like after that.

"My dad left before I was born, I've only met him once. My mom married Sergei, and I have two half-brothers." Another long pause. Then, "It wasn't much at first, just-" she took a shuddering breath. "He'd touch me, or make me touch him. But then it got worse, and worse."

Bo stayed silent, letting Kenzi talk it out on her own time. Inside, however, her blood boiled. She was a succubus, she thrived on sexual energy. However, it was always consensual sexual contact, even if her powers influenced her partners' desires. The thought of forcing someone, especially the fact that Kenzi had been just a _child_, into sex disturbed her on many levels, and the fact that she didn't detect that she had been sexually abused worried her.

Kenzi sat up from her previous position, moving so that she was sitting next to her best friend instead of laying down. She took a deep breath an glanced at Bo, then away again, ashamed.

"When I was ten, my mom and brothers went to go visit my grandmother. He-he got angry with me and shoved me in the closet for hours. I know because it was morning when he locked me up, and it was around eleven at night when he dragged me out. He threw me on the sofa and told me not to move. He, um." A sob escaped, and Bo reached out to hug her, Kenzi's head resting on Bo's shoulder. "He took his pants off and then mine. I tried to push him away, but he held my hands down. And then he was inside me."

Bo felt ill. Her stomach turned, like the feeling one would get on a roller coaster. "Oh God, Kenz," she whispered. It was the only thing she could think of to say.

"After that, I started running away, but I couldn't survive on my own for long periods of time, so I always had to come back. But every time he was angry, and I don't even remember what he was angry about most of the time, he'd do…That. Especially after I ran away. But that didn't stop me. If I could just get away for a few days, it was worth the punishment. Eventually he didn't even care if my brothers were home, he'd just tell them to go to their rooms. When I was fifteen, I had enough means to run away for good."

She was afraid of the answer, but she had to ask. "What about your mom?"

Another soft sob. Bo held her closer.

"She was upset at first, and tried to tell him to stop, but she couldn't enforce it. There was no way she could have afforded three kids on her own, and he knew it. She told me to just deal with it and not make him mad."

Bo turned her head to look at her. "She blamed you?"

Kenzi shrugged. "Well, I don't know. I guess. I mean, he wasn't violent towards anyone else in the family. He was apparently a decent father to my brothers. Something about me made him do that." The shame was coming off of her in waves. It reminded Bo of the creature that made Collette kill herself.

Bo lifted Kenzi's chin, searching the blue eyes that attempted to look away. "No." She said firmly. "Don't _ever_ think that. This was his problem, not yours. He felt inferior and powerless, and he took it out on you because you were defenseless."

Kenzi said nothing, she simply leaned against Bo for support and closed her eyes. They stayed like that the whole night.

/

Dyson and Hale watched the skinny man squirm in his seat. Any moment now, and he would talk. He probably didn't know much, but if he even gave them a bite they could use that against the more high-ranking members of the gang. He had been in there for at least two hours, looking incredibly uncomfortable and insecure. The detectives had to admit, they did enjoy the torment the man was visibly going through. He didn't elicit any sympathy from them-He was a bastard who vented his anger at his position in life by raping a little girl. It took all his strength to keep from killing him then and there when Hale dragged him into interrogation earlier. One less waste of flesh in the world.

"Alright! Alright," he finally cried out to no one. He had a thick Russian accent, which reminded them of the fake one Kenzi often put on. Dyson smirked and went into the room, sending Hale an "I told you so" look. He sat down across from the man, leaning against the back of the chair, and simply waited.

"I want immunity, or-or something. I have wife and two kids, they need someone to provide for them."

The shifter leaned forward, slamming his hand on the table. "You've gotten yourself into trouble with people a lot more dangerous than the cops. And, if I'm not mistaken, you had _three_ kids, until you abused one so badly she ran away."

A look of pure shock crossed Dvorkin's face. "Then who-" He shook his head, thinking better of his next words. That was first intellient thing the detective had seen him do. "Girl wasn't mine. Wife's."

"And that makes it okay to rape her?" Hale asked, disgusted.

Dvorkin made a face and spat on the floor. "Little slut. She would've become a whore anyway. I just prepared her for her future."

Focus!" Dyson shouted, not wanting to hear anymoe about th man's abusive behavior toward his friend. "Tell us what you know, or we'll force it out of you. You know our kind, you know what we can do."

Dvorkin was afraid. His eyes darted back and forth and his foot shook ceaselessly. "I know where one of the kids is. Or was. I'm not sure. I was only there once, to deliver information."

"What kind of information?"

The man shrugged. "I don't know. Was sealed."

"Address."

"27-50 Harding Boulevard. The apartment is number 10."

Dyson got up and headed toward the door.

"Wait! Can I leave now?" Dvorkin called after him.

He turned slowly, smiling strangely. "You wish."


	6. Slide

**Sorry about the wait, everyone. I didn't get this to Zauberzunge on time, and both she and I are busy with finals. She hasn't gotten back to me yet but I figured a week was long enough to make you guys wait, so this is coming out unbeta-ed. I did my best to proofread and all, but I'm sure I missed some things.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Lost Girl_ or the song "Slide".**

* * *

"Who are you blaming?

They're just playing!

That's a good one...

Who left the playground

A good decade before the bell rang?"

-The Dresden Dolls, "Slide" (_No, Virginia_, 2008)

As soon as Dvorkin had coughed up an address, Hale and Dyson had sent a rescue team to the apartment. The walls were reinforced with fire-retardant material, rendering the nymph's powers useless as far as an escape was concerned. The apartment was being guarded by alone member of the gang, who was quite easily dispathed. Obviously, the Nashnas were not concerned with anyone discovering their hostage; they probably hadn't figured that anyone would talk. The nymph was shaken and a little malnourished, but otherwise she was fine, according to Lauren. She was currently upstairs in the main part of the Ash's compound, drinking tea and waiting for someone to pick her up and take her back home where she could start to heal from her ordeal. Being made helpless is something that everyone fears, especially Fae, because they normally have the ability to defend themselves from whatever came their way. Dyson could understand her trauma. The detectives had asked her if she knew where the other hostages were being held, but she hadn't had any contact with the others. She did, however, confirm that the Fae working with the gang were Nashnas. They were the ones who had done most of the work in her kidnapping. She also told them that the two Nashnas she had encountered where woking toward increasing their status in the Dark Fae heirarchy, and that was why they were going through all this trouble of recruiting humans. If they would kill the humans after they got what they wanted, they could escape the consequences entirely while still damaging the Light Fae enough to keep their glory.

Hale was currently working on cracking the two other gang members, who stayed almost completely silent except for uttering things like, "I want a lawyer." Apparently they either didn't care for their own well-being ordidn't believe him when Hae told them that their employers would kill them as soon as this job was over.

"You aren't dealing with the cops, a lawyer would be useless," the siren informed one of them, exasperated. They'd already gone over this. Several times. These guys were thick, or stubborn, or both. The man seemed to look right through him from across the table and had since refused to speak. Hale had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. That would be unprofessional and juvenile, he thought to himself, trying to keep the calm he nomally had no problem with. He was still thinking about the nymph and Kenzi's stepfather. Had someone in the gang abused the young Fae girl as well whie she was being held prisoner? She hadn't said anything, but then, neither had Kenzi. The man was in a cell in the dungeon, and Hale couldn't stop imagining him forcing himself on his friend. It was disgusting.

The siren unclicked his pen and pushed back his chair. He left the gang leader by himself in interrogation, hoping some more isolation would make him talk. Hale walked outside, trying to clear his head of the awful images. Admittedly, he had never been a big fan of humans (he blamed his father for that), but Kenzi had this brightness about her that enchanted him. She was always energetic and upbeat, so knowing this about her caused a great disconnect in his image of her. He wasn't angry, as that had never been his thing, but more disappointed. Not in her-how could you even think of blaming a kid for that?-but more in her family, although he didn't know them. He could understand having a family that was ashamed of their child. His father had had no reservations in letting him know how much Hale had let him down. Dvorkin chattered on and on about raping his stepdaughter once he'd learned how much it disturbed his captors. He described situations where he would lock Kenzi in the closet for hours before violating her that turned Hale's stomach. At one point, Dyson had punched the man in the face, which succeeded in shutting him up for several hours.

Finally, one of the men, Aleksander Budian, broke down and told Hale about the Nashnas. They could be contacted at an address well outside the city, in a little suburb about two hours away. The detective smiled. They had what they needed, but there was no way these humans were getting out of this easy.

/

Bo woke up before Kenzi did, but she lay there for several minutes, holding the girl who had become like a sister to her close, watching her even breathing. They had fallen asleep there, after Bo had just let Kenzi cry. She got the feeling that the girl had probably never cried about the repeated, brutal abuse, and the succubus had no problem being there for her now. Her anger had worn off, and now she just felt… Sad. Sad for the younger Kenzi, who suffered through that, and sad for the older Kenzi who was always so upbeat and happy and yet felt like she had to hide this.

Bo moved slightly, trying to get into a more comfortable position, but in the process woke up her sleeping friend.

"Bo?" She asked, her voice gravelly from sleep and tears.

"I'm here," the woman replied, tucking a lock of hair behind the girl's ear. Kenzi closed her eyes again. Bo decided now as good a time as any to get up, and glanced at her cell phone. 10:06 AM, and a missed call and voicemail from Dyson. She listened to the message he'd left, slipping into her own room to shower and change as she did so. Afterwards, she called Trick to tell him what was happening, both with the case and with Dvorkin.

"What a strange coincidence," Trick said, unable to think of anything else to say. It was a lot of information to take in.

"Yeah, a coincidence that forced Kenzi to fess up," Bo replied.

"Bo, she had a good reason for not telling everyone. Just remember that."

Bo sighed. She said goodbye to him and climbed down the steps back into the living area, where she saw that Kenzi was already there, dressed and all, pouring coffee into a mug.

"Sorry about last night," she said, a smile on her face, like usual. "Want coffee?"

"Don't you dare apologize," Bo said, taking the offered mug. "I'm just sorry you had to go through that."

Kenzi shrugged, looking down at her nails as if they were the most interesting things in the world. "Whatevs. I'm over it."

Bo wasn't convinced, but she let the comment slide so as not to upset her friend. "Dyson called. They found the hiding place of the Fae, and they want to meet us at the compound before they leave to get them."

Kenzi's eyes lit up. "Nothing like some major ass-kicking to get your mind off things, huh?" She laughed, pulling on her boots. "I'm so down."

Bo was pleased that, as far as she could tell, Kenzi's happiness was genuine. It broke her heart to see her friend so distraught last night, knowing that there was nothing anyone did to protect her from her stepfather. She smiled back, throwing an arm over Kenzi's shoulders as they walked out of the house together. They would always be there for each other.

/

Lauren had briefly examined the fire nymph girl before declaring that she was fine, other than being scared out of her wits. The doctor personally saw to it that her mother picked her up from the compound, hugging and making a fuss over her as they walked out. The mother had glared in Lauren's direction for a second, but after living for so long amongst the Fae, she had grown used to the sometimes-pitying, sometimes-hostile looks.

The doctor had almost turned to go back to the lab when a loud, high-pitched voice she instantly recognized called her name from the doorway.

"Yo, Doctor Hotpants!"

Lauren inwardly cringed. She didn't feel she had much in common with the younger, more extraverted girl, other than the fact that they were both humans in the world of Fae. She often wondered if she had been that immature at age 22. Now, however, she felt a little like an eavesdropper, due to the fact that she knew about Kenzi's past without actually talking to her about it. Reading someone's medical history is like reading a book report on that person, if you know you're looking at.

Bo and Kenzi made their way toward her, their heels clicking in sync. Lauren smiled a little at the succubus, feeling a little awkward and out of her element. "What are you two doing here?" She asked.

"The Fae involved with the human gang were found. Nash-somethings. I think we're going to have to either bring them here or kill them today. Dyson made them sound pretty strong." Bo replied.

Lauren thought for a moment, trying to determine what Fae Bo could be talking about. "Oh! Nashnas!" She exclaimed, remembering reading a few paragraphs on them in one of her medical textbooks. "I don't know much about them, other than that they can be particularly nasty creatures. They're vicious fighters, but I'm sure you all will be able to apprehend them."

Bo's smile grew wider at the other woman's confidence in her. "Thanks, Lauren." The two women held each other's gaze for a few moments before Bo looked away, a little embarrassed. Kenzi smirked at the two of them, her hand on her hip.

"Well, um, we'd better get downstairs. I want to be able to get to these things before dark, so we'd have the advantage." Bo grasped Kenzi's hand and began leading her to the staircase before turning back.

"Why don't you come down with us? Get out of the lab for a little while?"

The doctor thought of her duties for the day. "Maybe for a little while," she replied, walking to catch up with them.

The three women were greeted just outside the Ash's dungeon by Dyson, who raised an eyebrow at Lauren's presence, but didn't say anything about it. He glanced Kenzi's way with sympathy, though she didn't catch it. He filled them in on the necessary details of retrieving the Nashnas. They were demonic creatures; gargoyle-like with the ability to see into a person's deepest, most secret desires. It was a dangerous skill-one could be tempted to do whatever the Nashna wished following the carrot on a stick the creature promised. Their weakness lay in the huge, intimidating bats' wings they sported: though the wings were clawed and could prove a formidable obstacle in battle, a cut through would cause the creature immense, torturous pain and anguish, which would give them the upper hand for either execution or retrieval, whichever would be more practical at the time.

"They're not stupid creatures. We have to be careful," Dyson looked at Bo pointedly. She rolled her eyes good-naturedly at him, and then noticed the shifter stare at something behind her. She almost turned to see what had caught his attention, but he shook his head ever so slightly at her. Down the hall, Hale was escorting Dvorkin from interrogation to his cell. He'd forgotten-they were having Dvorkin's brain picked apart by a mind-reader to see if he knew anything else. The two would have to pass the group in order to get back to the cell.

"Kenz," he said, and she looked up at him with a grin. "Why don't you-"

But it was too late. Dvorkin was already in a frenzied state, an after-effect of having your brain rummaged through, his eyes darting back and forth. Spotting his stepdaughter was too much for him to handle. Hale wasn't expecting him to break free, so when he heard the man shout "Whore!" Dvorkin had wrestled away from him and was already halfway down the hall.

Kenzi nearly jumped out of her skin. She turned quickly at the voice, her eyes wide with fear. She'd suddenly reverted back to her childhood, where that voice screaming at her meant that horrible things were about to take place. Dvorkin grabbed her arms in a death grip, screaming in her face in Russian before anyone else had time to process what had just happened. While he was a diminuitive, and even scrawny man in the eyes of Dyson and Hale, Kenzi was a tiny girl even with her boots. She shrank back from him submissively, trying to pull her arms away but failing.

Bo acted first. With an impressive display of her superhuman strength, she extracted his fingers from her friend's arms and pulled him back far enough so that he was yelling and spitting and struggling in rage. Kenzi fell back from the force, but Dyson grabbed her. At the contact of hands on her skin, she tried in desperation to get free before she realized who was holding her. His very guarded heart ached that she couldn't tell the difference between him and Dvorkin, although he knew it was just human instinct. The shifter could feel her heavy, frightened breathing beginning to calm as he guided her away from the scene, Dvorkin screaming obscenities as her as they passed.


	7. Bandaid Covers The Bullet Hole

"Say hello to my little friend

The world is getting ugly and we did it again."

-Scarling, "Bandaid Covers the Bullet Hole"

* * *

"You alright?" Dyson asked when the two of them were safely outside, away from Dvorkin. Kenzi nodded.

"Yeah," she said, but her smile didn't reach her eyes. He could tell she wasn't telling the truth, and she knew it. She looked away. "No," she admitted.

Dyson pulled her into a hug and she wrapped her arms around him, holding tightly. His heightened senses perceived her rapid heart rate and the adrenaline wearing off that was making her shake. He suddenly felt overprotective of her, although he knew that it was useless. Her abuse was something that was already in the past, something she had solved herself by running away from a place she didn't feel safe in. He couldn't imagine that the streets were any kinder to a fifteen year old girl, though. Seemed like a lose-lose situation to him. He had experienced being in her tiny body, where he'd felt weak and powerless and vulnerable. He didn't want to think about how she had felt when she was even tinier and a grown man was abusing her. How did he not break her in half? Dyson grimaced at the thought. On the other hand, the shifter knew that she had managed to take care of herself quite well. She was alive, wasn't she? He didn't like to admit it, being that humans were supposed to be beneath him, but he was actually quite fond of Kenzi.

Her breathing was coming in sharp intakes, a sure sign that she was trying not to start sobbing then and there. Encountering Dvorkin again must have been more shocking to her than he'd thought. "It's alright," he told her quietly, placing a hand behind her head.

"Uh-huh," she murmured.

"Come on," Dyson said, leading her to his car.

"Where are we going?" She asked as she got in the passenger seat. She was definitely not comfortable with all these people knowing about Sergei. She'd managed to bury the guilt and shame deep inside of her, and had become a stronger person because of it. Digging up those old feelings made her confidence falter, but she refused to revert back to the scared little girl she had been. She'd grown too much for that. She didn't want her friends' pity; she'd taken matters into her own hands seven years ago and made her own future. She was a survivor, not a victim.

"Just driving," Dyson replied, starting the car. The silence that followed was a little awkward, but not entirely unpleasant. It's not like Kenzi wanted to talk anyway, which was a first for her. As the detective merged onto the highway, he asked a question.

"Why'd you lie?"

Kenzi was confused. She turned her head to look at him, but he kept his eyes on the road. "Lie about what?"

"At the hospital when you were thirteen. You told the staff what really happened, but then you retracted your statement. Why?" He was genuinely curious.

Kenzi sighed dramatically. "Damn you Fae and your access to all information," she said under her breath. He smirked. She was still Kenzi, no matter what had come back to haunt her.

"Start at the beginning," he told her.

"I don't have to tell you anything," she replied stubbornly. Seriously, did no one believe that she had any right to privacy? This was becoming more than a little irritating.

"No, you don't have to," he replied. "But you want to."

"I really don't. I already spilled my guts to Bo last night. A girl's gotta keep some secrets."

Dyson's amused smirk faded. "Kenz,"he said seriously. "You've kept these secrets for entirely too long. We all care about you and want you to be safe."

"Then stop treating me like I'm fragile!" The girl exclaimed. "I'm _fine_. I've taken care of myself since I was a teenager. I managed to live in that house for years, and then on the streets. I'm not obligated to tell anyone anything." Her friends were seriously starting to piss her off. They had no right to pry into her business, and why did they want to know so much anyway?

"You're not fragile," Dyson said quietly. "You're the strongest person I've ever met, remember?" He flashed back on the image of her handing him the glass container that held his love after going up against the Norn with a chainsaw. He frowned. She was fiercely loyal to this group of friends because her family clearly couldn't care less about her well-being.

"So why do you all keep trying to make me talk? Why can't we just leave the past in the past?" She was still angry, but she'd let the venom drain out of her voice. She watched as the world around her blurred with the speed of the car.

"Because it's hurting you," he explained, turning off an exit to go back into the city. "Do you realize how much it pains us to see you in pain? Bo and I are ready to murder Dvorkin, and I'm sure Hale is too, even though he has way less of a temper than either of us. And trust me, talking about things that are bothering you makes them feel smaller."

"Maybe you should think about taking your own advice sometime," Kenzi said under her breath. He pretended not to hear her comment, but glanced at her to see if she would keep talking. She made a big show of rolling her eyes. "My mom told me to. That's why I lied," She said curtly.

Dyson was patient.

"We were having a fairly normal family dinner, me, my mom, Sergei, and my two half-brothers, Evan and Lucas. Evan was really young, like, second grade or something, and so I was teasing him about a girl in his class that he liked." Kenzi looked at her boots.

"Evan started crying, and that really made my stepdad mad. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of my chair and slammed me against the wall." Kenzi could remember this incident clearly, as it was burned into her memory for all eternity. Sergei wasn't normally physically abusive, aside from a slap every now and then, so his sudden violent outburst was bizarre. "My mom took my brothers into their room and stayed there with them so they wouldn't see. He backed me into a corner and started punching and kicking me, and one kick broke my rib. When he got bored with that, he raped me again and left the apartment for the night. My mom called my aunt to babysit and took me to the hospital because I wouldn't stop screaming about my rib." She said all of this clinically, as if she were repeating something that had happened to someone else, not to her.

"How could someone act that way?" Dyson wondered mostly to himself, his anger rising. Unnecessary cruelty, especially to children, always baffled and infuriated him. There was absolutely no reason to treat a defenseless kid as if they were a threat.

Kenzi surprised him by answering. "I think he resented having to take care of me. You know, I wasn't his kid but I was still living there with them and taking up their resources. I guess I reminded him that my mom was with my dad first."

"What about him? Your dad, I mean."

"He didn't stick around. He showed up once when I was eleven but it was only to ask my mom for money." She didn't mention that he'd seemed a little interested in her at first, until Sergei made a point to tell her father that he was using her as his whore. Then he'd just looked at her like she was the most disgusting thing on the planet and later denied that he'd ever gotten Halina pregnant. "My mom refused to give him the money, he threw a tantrum and I haven't seen him since."

"I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter. It's not like he would've been any better than Sergei. My mom sure knows how to pick 'em."

Dyson, however, wanted to know the rest of the story. "So after your mom took you to the hospital..." He prompted.

"My nurse asked me what had happened, and I told her the truth. My mom wasn't in the room at the time, so she didn't hear what I said. The nurse took a bunch of pictures and went to go talk to her, and then my mom came back into my room. She said that if I pressed charges against Sergei I would ruin the family and she would stand by his side, not mine. So I had to refuse the rape kit and tell the nurse I lied, that I actually fell down a flight of stairs and was sent back home." The car was approaching the Dal now.

"Why are we here?" Kenzi asked. "We should be getting back to the compound. Don't you have to, like, capture the Nashnas?"

"It can wait. Besides, we need a weapon from Trick," Dyson replied. "Stay here."

"Oh no," Kenzi said. "You dragged me here, I'm not waiting in the car."

Dyson rolled his eyes.

/

"Trick, we need some kind of longsword," Dyson told the bartender when he and Kenzi waked in. "We're dealing with Nashnas."

Trick looked up from cleaning glasses and smiled warmly at the two of them. Kenzi noticed him glance briefly her way warily, as if she were a ticking bomb and any little thing could set her off. Since when had she ever shown any indication that people needed to walk on eggshells around her?

Then it hit her. Bo told him about her stepdad. Goddamnit. They were going to have to have a serious talk later. She knew her friend was only trying to help, but her way of 'helping' was seriously misguided.

Not like I can do anything about it now, she thought to herself and smiled wider at the man. Might as well show him that she was just peachy, since no one seemed to believe her when she told them. Sure, it hurt like hell to bring Dvorkin back up, but it's not like she's any different than she was before now that they know. The past was the past, right?

"I have just the thing," Trick told them, and fetched a a very big, very ancient-looking sword and scabbard from the back room. He pulled the sword out of its home just enough for Dyson and Kenzi to see it glimmer in the afternoon sunlight that filled the bar. "Tell Bo I need it to be returned. She has this awful habit of keeping my weapons," he told them, chuckling a little.

"Will do, Trickster," Kenzi said, picking up the sword. Dyson grabbed her wrist to make her give up the weapon before she did something she'd regret, but she couldn't help the sudden tremor that rocked her body as he did so. He immediately let go of her and inwardly cursed himself. Of course she was still jumpy; her stepfather had just pulled a similar tactic on her not an hour ago. Trick observed the exchange quietly, knowing better than to bring attention to it lest he make both of them uncomfortable.

"Why don't you stay with Trick," the shifter told Kenzi. "I don't think it's such a good idea for you to be around-" He cut himself off. Kenzi glared, though the look hardly fazed him.

"I'm fine," she said. She felt like she'd repeated that phrase a hundred times in the past two days.

"You're not coming back to the compound." With that, he turned and walked out the door. As much fight as she put up, he knew that she wasn't ready to face Dvorkin again so soon. Besides, he wanted to beat the living hell out of the man first.


	8. The Poet and the Pendulum

**Hey everyone! Summer has started, so updates may take a little bit longer (or they may come faster, I don't really know). On the other hand, there are only about two chapters left. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Lost Girl_ or the song "The Poet and the Pendulum.**

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"The end

The songwriter's dead

The blade fell upon him, taking him off to the white lands

Of Empathica, of innocence

Empathica, innocence."

-Nightwish, "The Poet and The Pendulum" (_Dark Passion Play_, 2007)

It was near dark when they reached their destination. Bo, Dyson, and Hale had driven the two hours outside of Toronto to the sleepy little town called Herronston that Budian had told them the Nashnas could be found. There was no guarantee that they would have the hostages there, or that Budian was even telling the truth, but they had to follow up on the lead. The hostages had been missing for almost two weeks, and any police investigator will tell you that the longer someone is missing the less likely it is that they are still alive. If the Nashnas hadn't made their move to acquire the weapons yet, however, there was still a chance for those in their grasp.

The trio had been examining neighborhood after neighborhood, Dyson shaking his head at every house so far. He hadn't caught head nor tail of their scent yet, but they'd only been searching for a couple hours and although this was a small town, there were enough houses to keep them busy for a while. When they approached an unassuming, raised ranch style house separated from all other neighbors by at least half a mile, a wave of fear-scent assaulted Dyson's senses. He quickly picked up on the scent of the Nashnas: there were two of them, which confirmed what the nymph and the gang members they held captive had said. He couldn't make out exactly how many of the hostages were there over the fear and general filth, but there were definitely at least three. He nodded to Bo and Hale, and the group retreated several houses away. If they had the advantage of surprise, there was no need to waste that.

"We all need to be inside. I'd like it better if we'd brought back-up to place around the perimeter of the house, but we can't worry about that now," Hale said quickly.

"So how do we get in without them noticing?" Dyson asked. "There are only two doors, and I'd imagine they're both monitored. None of the windows look big enough for us to get through."

"So we abandon the sneak attack route," Bo said with finality. "We keep our cover as close as we can get to the house, but there's no way we'll really be able to surprise them."

They knew she was right. The plan was little reckless, but it didn't seem like there was another, more sane way. They would focus all their attention on taking out the Nashnas first, and worry about the hostages afterward. It was looking more and more like killing them was their only option, though the three of them still talked as if they were going to just "capture" them. They were Dark Fae after all, and the last thing the group wanted was to restart the war over a couple of power-hungry Nashnas. The Morrigan had been informed of the situation, but it was still better to play it safe.

Bo crept toward the house, Dyson and Hale right beside her. There were very few times when Dyson wished he could turn off his hyper-sensitive nose, but this was one of those times. Fear was sickening smell, both because of the actual scent and because of what it represented. As they got closer, they could see one of the gargoyle-like creatures through a window on the lower level.

"We'll get that one first," Dyson said, his voice nothing more than a whisper. All three readied their weapons, Bo brandishing Trick's longsword, Hale holding a spear with a poisoned tip, and Dyson with a curved scimitar. They were going to waltz right through the front door and fight like demons.

/

Kenzi accepted the drink Trick handed her, eyeing him carefully. Was this another attempt at getting her to talk? Because she so was not in the mood. Her friends left on a mission without her, after she had spoken to Dyson about some of the worst parts of her life. Did they all think she was suddenly fragile now? Because she wasn't, damnit. And kicking Nashna ass would totally have but her in a better mood, but nooo, suddenly Kenzi had to be treated like a child.

On the other hand, Trick gave no indication of making her talk about something she didn't want to, so she tried her best to relax. All he did was smile at her and chat with some of the other customers, going about his usual business. As she downed the alcohol, she noticed him walk toward her but didn't think anything of it for the moment. That is, until he opened his mouth.

"How are you doing?" It was an innocent question, but it reminded Kenzi of just how they thought of her.

"Would everyone stop asking me that?" Kenzi exclaimed, probably much louder than she should have because several patrons turned their heads to look at her. She lowered her voice, looking properly ashamed. "Sorry, it's just, all of the sudden everyone knows about my stepdad and I have no privacy and don't even _try_ to pretend you don't know what I'm talking about because I know Bo told you, and they're all walking on eggshells around me and I totes don't need that, and—"

Trick held up a hand to cut her off. "I get it," he said. "But if you need anyone to talk to, my door's always open."

"It happened. I was little. Yeah, it sucked, but I'm over it," Kenzi said quickly.

"I've been alive a long time. I've known a lot of girls who... Went through the same thing. You've dealt with it better than most." Trick told her honestly.

Kenzi smiled a little. "Thanks. I just wish Bo could see that."

"Look," he said, placing his rag off to the side and held her gaze. "Bo views you as her little sister, and she feels as if she wasn't able to protect you then, so she's trying to make up for it now."

"That's ridic," Kenzi replied, stuffing a peanut in her mouth. "She didn't even know me then. _And_, I'm over it." She realized she was repeating herself and sighed. "It was a long time ago. I don't need her hovering." Or telling everyone we know, she thought to herself.

Trick seemed to read her mind. "She doesn't mean to invade your privacy. She just doesn't know what to do, and I think she feels a little awkward around you now."

Kenzi's heart dropped. How could this make her best friend feel awkward around her? The shame came rushing back to her.

"I-I know, she's only doing her best," she stuttered as she began to gather her things. "I'm gonna go, I'll catch you later, okay?"

Trick looked after her as she nearly fled the bar.

/

"Over here!" Bo yelled as she stabbed one of the Nashnas in its wing. Dyson knew the other one was barreling down the steps to see what creatures dared to disrupt their plans. Sure enough, the other monster appeared at the landing of the steps, roaring intimidatingly. Hale charged at it, but it pulled its wing away from his reach and attempted to stare into the detective's eyes. Dyson made a split-second decision to help Hale, as Bo had already gotten an advantage over her opponent. There was no sign of the hostages, but there was also no way the Nashnas were going to keep them in plain sight, where they could easily escape.

The shifter abandoned his scimitar fairly quickly, preferring to fight in his wolf form. It was more comfortable and he could handle the wolf's instincts better than he could fight with a weapon. Hale lunged at the creature again, grazing the creature with the poisoned tip of his spear. It wailed in pain, but only seemed to grow angrier. Its reptilian eyes glowed orange, but Hale countered it with a siren whistle as Dyson jumped at its throat. Bo stabbed at the Nashna she was facing off against once more, effectively forcing it to the ground. Maybe capture was possible after all, Dyson thought for a brief moment before the other Nashna clawed at his side.

Hale noticed his opening as the monster was preoccupied with Dyson. With one jab at its wing, he pinned it to the ground, tearing a hole through it like the scaly membrane was nothing more than paper. Dyson changed back into his human form and dressed as quickly as he could before he charged up the steps in search of the hostages. The first thing he noticed was a large, reinforced steel door at the end of the short hallway. Relief washed over him as he realized that even if the Nashnas had to be killed tonight, their captives were safe. Now all he had to do was get through that door.

"Bo! Hale!" He called, although both of his friends were busy trying to control the struggling Nashnas. He just caught Hale's eye as he shook his head and decapitated the creature in one chop of Dyson's abandoned scimitar. The shifter couldn't blame him, Bo needed help keeping the other one from escaping. Dyson reached toward the door, but a strong electric shock coursed through his body before he'd even laid his hands on it.

"Shit," he muttered, leaning over to catch his breath. He wracked his brain for a solution to the problem, as there was no obvious way to get through that door.

Bo called up the stairs to him. "Are the hostages up there?"

"Yeah!" He yelled back. "But I can't get to them. Is there a-a key or something down there?" He could almost see the confused look she and Hale most definitely shared.

"Not that we can see," Hale told them. He kicked the Nashna. "How do we get in?" He demanded.

"Bring it up here," Dyson told them.

With much effort, Bo and Hale dragged the creature to the top of the stairs and then to the door. "What's the big-" Bo started as she appproached the door.

"Don't!" Dyson warned. The succubus quickly pulled her hand away. "It's electrified," he explained. The Nashna uttered something that could have been a laugh or a growl.

"What?" Bo turned on it.

"Only Nashnas can touch the door," it told her, its voice low and grating. "It is intrinsic to our biology. You honestly think we'd make it easy for them to get out?"

Hale grabbed the creature by the throat and thrust it toward the door. "We will kill you, just like we did to your friend downstairs," Bo stated dangerously. Defiance flared through the creature's eyes before it realized that this was over. It was outnumbered, and it didn't doubt that these three would kill him the second they got the chance. If it let the hostages out, maybe it could barter for its life. Slowly, it put out its viciously clawed hand and opened the door with a forceful push, revealing several Light Fae inside, all looking worse than the nymph they had rescued did. The relief of the group was almost tangible.

Dyson could hear Hale calling the Ash's guards for backup behind him. Good, they would need them.

Now there was only one thing left to do, and that involved making Dvorkin pay.


	9. Shot In The Dark

**Hi everyone, I'm really sorry for the delay, but I'm working with a new horse and have been spending a lot of time catching up with friends from high school now that I'm home. I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

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"'Cause your soul is on fire

A shot in the dark

What did they aim for when they missed your heart?"

-Within Temptation, "Shot In The Dark" (_The Unforgiving_, 2011)

Bo was exhausted.

She had left Dyson and Hale to deal with delivering the Nashna to the Ash, while she sat with some of the shaken hostages outside the compound. She had just run to the local deli to grab some coffee, which she distributed to the Fae in her charge.

The former captives talked quietly amongst themselves, sharing their common experience. They didn't seem to want to include her in their discussion, so she lowered herself to sit on the steps of the main building. She closed her eyes and leaned her head on the concrete banister, letting her mind run over the events of the past few days and playing with the edges of the Styrofoam cup of burnt coffee in her hands. Inevitably, her thoughts turned to Kenzi, someone she wasn't exactly ready to think about just yet. After their talk the other night, things had been so busy with the case that the two women hadn't seen much of each other lately.

It would be naïve of Bo to assume her friend had _not_ been a victim of sexual violence, probably more than once. After all, she had lived on the streets for years, and the succubus had seen firsthand what happens to young homeless kids, especially young homeless girls. They're easy prey for anyone who wants to victimize them: not only would the police not take them very seriously; most of the girls would be too ashamed to admit that they had been raped in the first place. Even if they did want to report, their abusers usually had enough power over them to intimidate them into staying silent. Bo had read somewhere that rape and other forms of sexual assault were the most underreported crimes in the world, which she found quite believable. She couldn't count the times she had seen prostitutes that barely looked older than seventeen, or runaway girls shacking up with much older abusive boyfriends. In a culture like this, it was almost guaranteed that her friend had been sexually assaulted. Bo felt as if she had handwaved the possibility of Kenzi being subjected to such abuse because of her attitude.

Speaking of her attitude, it seemed to be in full force at the moment.

Bo opened her eyes to the sound of heavy boots stomping toward her, and saw Kenzi walking quickly and purposefully up the sidewalk that led to the entrance. Her blue eyes were alight with fire and her body language clearly said '_stay the fuck away_'. Bo stood up quickly, which caused her friend to notice her. Her demeanor instantly changed to her usual, playful one, although it was obviously just an act. Bo noticed that she shifted her weight from one foot to the other and fidgeted, something she did when she was anxious.

"Hey Bo," Kenzi said, forcing cheerfulness into her voice.

"Kenz," the succubus said slowly. "What's going on? Why are you here?" She felt a little silly asking, of course she knew the reason Kenzi was here.

Kenzi's smile dropped off her face. She debated with herself for a moment, before coming outright and saying it.

"I want to see Dvorkin," she stated plainly. Bo's brow furrowed. She realized her friend had a desire to confront her abuser, but she wasn't sure if how Dvorkin would react, if he would try to grab the girl again, and if Dyson and Hale would want her visiting their prisoner. All of this had just been thrust upon her, and was she even thinking rationally right now?

Kenzi must have misinterpreted Bo's hesitation, because she dropped her gaze to the ground.

"You don't want me to," she said. "You think I can't handle it."

"Oh God, honey, no," Bo reached out to her, pulling her into a one-armed hug. "It's just that I worry about you. I want you to stay safe."

"I _am_ safe." Kenzi looked her friend in the eyes. "Thanks to you, and everyone. Just let me do this. _Please_."

Bo's heart broke all over again. Here was her best friend, pleading with her to allow her to face the man who made her childhood a living hell. An unbidden image of Kenzi struggling to push the much larger man away from her sneaked its way into her mind, and she shook her head almost imperceptibly to rid herself of it. She suddenly felt the need to tear the bastard apart herself. She caught her friend's blue eyes with her own brown ones, strengthening her resolve.

"Okay," she said softly. "Okay. If you're sure. Let me take care of these people though?" She pressed a kiss to Kenzi's temple as the girl nodded reluctantly.

She turned to the group, who were still speaking to each other in hushed tones. She asked if they would mind waiting for their loved ones inside the building, and the Fae complied without much protest, fortunately. One little boy halted in front of her before heading inside, looking up so he could catch Bo's eye.

"Thank you, miss," he said quietly.

"No problem," she replied. "It's what I do," she whispered as he ran off. She turned to find Kenzi smiling slightly.

"Yeah," she agreed. "It is."

/

Dyson and Hale spoke with the Ash briefly before securing the Nashna in an impenetrable concrete cell that had been fortified with magic. As the door slammed closed, Hale breathed an exhausted sigh, glad the ordeal was over. All that was left to do was to wait for the Morrigan to discuss politics with the Ash and other members of the Light Council, which would most likely end in the Nashna's lifetime imprisonment or execution.

Although, there was still the teensy problem of Dvorkin and the other captive members of the gang. It was unlikely that leaders on either side of divide would allow them to live, now that they knew about the existence of the Fae and were unclaimed. Hale gritted his teeth, banishing the thought that death would be too good for Dvorkin from his mind. The siren was normally an extremely peaceful person and tried to find the good in everyone, but he couldn't bring himself to acknowledge that the man might have any good traits. If he did, his bad characteristics certainly outweighed them.

The two detectives caught sight of Bo and Kenzi walking down the hallway, their heads bent in quiet conversation. Bo looked up and noticed them as well, and grabbed her friend's hand to keep her from continuing.

"What are you two doing down here?" Dyson asked carefully. He crossed his arms over his chest, hoping that looking a little more intimidating would get them to tell the truth. The shifter had the sneaking suspicion they were up to no good, no doubt helped by the fact that they were on the path toward the area that currently housed Dvorkin and company and looked as if they were plotting something.

"Dyson," Bo began, grabbing his elbow and dragging him away from the other two. "Kenzi wants to see Dvorkin, and I personally think that it's a good idea."

"A good idea for whom? Not for Kenzi," He retorted.

"What? Of course it's a good idea for her! She needs closure, this guy was way more than an asshole to her," Bo said, gesturing wildly while still keeping her voice low.

"I'm thinking it may have more to do with _your_ need for closure, Bo." Dyson was still skeptical. "I know you wish you could have protected Kenzi from him, but that's just not possible to do now, unless you can go back in time."

"This isn't about what I want," the succubus replied. "Kenzi asked me if she could see him, and if we don't let her, you know she'll just come back later when none of us are here to make sure nothing goes wrong."

Dyson could see her point. Kenzi was incredibly headstrong and rarely had the forethought to examine the consequences of her actions. He relented, after considering his own desire to see the young human girl metaphorically—or perhaps literally—spit in her stepfather's face.

"Alright," he nodded.

/

When Dyson stepped into Dvorkin's cell, the man was asleep on the cot that had been placed in the corner. Dyson kicked the side of the mattress, close to the prisoner's head, whose eyes snapped open, frantically darting around before focusing on the shifter.

"What do _you_ want?"

"To throw you in a pit with a pack of rabid dogs and watch them tear you to pieces, but I'll settle for letting your stepdaughter tell you what a worthless piece of shit you are herself." Despite his words, Dyson's tone was casual, almost playful.

"The hell…?" Dvorkin wondered aloud as he was jerked to his feet and led forcefully to the room he had been questioned in.

"Sit." Fortunately for him, Dvorkin obeyed the demand and waited inside while his captor left the room to speak with the rest of the group.

"It's not a good idea for you to go alone in there, Kenz," Dyson said.

Kenzi understood. Better than anyone, she understood that it most definitely was _not_ a good idea to be alone in a room with her stepdad. She played with the safety pins on her jeans nervously.

"We'll all go in with you," Bo told her, noticing her friend's sudden apprehension regarding the whole situation.

"Thanks," she said softly. As much as the shame had formed in the pit of her stomach that told her that what Dvorkin did was _all her fault_, making her feel a bit ill, she desperately wanted the comfort and support of her friends.

Dyson led the way back inside the room. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall furthest from Dvorkin while the others filed in.

Hale joined his partner, but Bo stuck by Kenzi's side like an overprotective guard dog.

Dvorkin watched them, tapping his foot incessantly on the floor. Kenzi turned to face him, breathed deeply, and took a hesitant step toward him. The man immediately jumped up, although the fact that his hands were bolted to the table in front of him prevented him from once again grabbing at his stepdaughter and shaking her, as he had done at their last meeting.

He yelled something in Russian*, which made Bo look to her friend in confusion. Kenzi obviously understood his words. "You're a filthy, lying, dirty whore," he'd said. The girl's eyes blazed, but she kept her voice even and calm when she spoke to him.

"No, Sergei." She replied in the same language. "I'm not."

Dvorkin smiled sadistically. "Then why don't you tell everyone what age you lost your purity, Mackenzie _Innochka_," he said in English. "That middle name doesn't exactly suit you, now, does it?"

Kenzi grabbed at Bo's hand for security. "You raped me," she said quietly, angrily. "I was ten years old, and you raped me."

Dvorkin shrugged. "Have you ever asked yourself why? You were a slut, even at that age. Admit it. You _liked_ it." Kenzi's eyes glazed over with tears, and Bo squeezed her hand—half for her friend's comfort, and half to keep herself from killing the man in front of her.

He looked from her to her friends. "When she was fourteen, she had a boyfriend six years older than her," he laughed. "Always running off for days at a time. Sometimes weeks. You think your mother and I didn't know what you were up to?"

"I ran to get away from you," she said.

"And then ran to be what? A prostitute? Is that how you survived on the streets?"

"No," Kenzi's voice was edged with desperation. Dyson stood so that he was no longer leaning against the wall, but he didn't move forward.

This was her battle; if they fought it for her, she'd never recover. He would not, however, just stand by and watch as the man tore her down verbally. She briefly turned her head to him when she heard the noise, and he nodded reassuringly to her. She gave him a fleeting smile, and faced Dvorkin again with renewed confidence. She closed the distance between them, abandoning Bo's hand (although the succubus still followed behind her best friend at distance that would seem invasive if it were anyone else) and leaned in close to his face. Dyson thought, for a moment, that he might actually get to see Kenzi spit in the bastard's face.

"Listen to me, very carefully," she said in Russian before switching to English again. "You are a sick, twisted little boy. You took advantage of someone much weaker than you in order to make yourself feel better. Like you had some kind of power, because you know, deep down inside, that you're nothing. It's not my fault. It's yours."

Dvorkin made a noise that could only be described as a roar. He slammed his hand down on the table, struggling against his restraints. "Stupid, worthless whore," he yelled. The thick plastic restraints, usually enforced with different magicks to keep Fae prisoners from breaking free, snapped under the force. He stared at his hands in shock for a millionth of a second, before leaping across the table and grabbing Kenzi by her hair. They both fell to the floor, with Dvorkin straddling the girl. The position was extremely triggering to her, and she found herself flashing back to that time when she was eleven and had stood up to her stepfather for screaming at her mother. Bo latched onto his arms to pull him off. He squirmed out of her grip and forced Kenzi's head up so she was centimeters from his face. He landed a punch to her cheek and slammed her into the hard floor.

"Who has the power now?" He asked her.

* * *

*Obviously, I don't speak Russian (wish I did), so, ah, pretend? Sorry :/


	10. Cry For The Moon

**Wow, again, sorry for the wait. I don't have any excuse besides "It's horse show season." So this is the last chapter, I hope it doesn't seem too rushed and I really hope I dealt with this subject in a realistic manner (well, as realistic as you can get when writing in a universe where supernatural beings exist). Thanks for reading, everyone!**

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"Eternal silence cries out justice

Forgiveness is not for sale

Nor is the will to forget."

-Epica, "Cry For The Moon" (_The Phantom Agony_, 2003)

The small room erupted into chaos.

Kenzi squirmed violently beneath her stepfather, desperately trying to push the triggering thoughts from her head. The reality of Dvorkin's angry, snarling face bearing down on her released a flood of memories: He was dragging her by the arm, jerking her jeans down, forcing himself inside her, fucking her. She was fighting, screaming, crying as he touched and kissed her. All the bruises, the abdominal pain, the bedwetting, the questions that were rarely asked by authority figures. Her mother's refusal to acknowledge the abuse that was going on in her own home. How it took her years not to feel sickened when she was touched, even if the touch was entirely platonic. How she still sometimes associated sex with violence.

She briefly wondered if was obvious to the others how screwed up he had made her.

Bo made another, more successful grab at him and managed to throw him across the room, a fairly easy feat for her. He crumpled unceremoniously to the ground, but was back up in an instant. Bo swung a well-aimed punch at his face, which made him stagger and nearly fall over again.

"That's for what you did to Kenzi, you piece of shit," she said as he regained his equilibrium.

When he realized who had hit him, Dvorkin charged at her full force but was apprehended by Dyson, who was by him in the blink of an eye, twisting his arms behind his back and firmly placing him in a chokehold with a bit more force than was probably necessary. Dvorkin pulled at the hands on his throat, making desperate gurgling noises and trying to kick his captor, but to no avail.

Hale helped Kenzi to her feet. "You alright, lil' momma?" He whispered placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. She nodded shakily.

The whole ordeal seemed to happen in a nanosecond, disorienting her. The small woman stood very still for a moment, examining the scene before her. She looked at Bo, who returned her gaze cautiously. She saw the anger and concern in her best friend's deep brown eyes, a look that made something bubble up inside her.

These people cared about her. Well, of course she knew that before, but actually _seeing_ it was a whole other story. Her mother had told her many times that she loved her, but when the time came for to prove it, she couldn't. Kenzi knew she would forgive her mom in a heartbeat, because the woman was a poor child of immigrants without a college education, a shitty, dead-end job and three kids. If she were to divorce Dvorkin, there would be no one to help her or her children survive. It still hurt to know that her mother partially blamed her for the abuse, despite all of that.

But Bo. Bo, and Dyson, and Hale, and Trick, and even perhaps Lauren—They were family. A real family, and they were proving that right now in ways that her biological family never could. The thought made her eyes sting with tears, but she refused to let them fall. Instead, she glanced once more at Dvorkin and walked silently out of the room.

Bo followed her quickly, shutting the door behind her. She was surprised when Kenzi turned and threw her arms around her and hugged her with all her might. She wrapped her own arms around her smaller friend.

"Shh," she soothed. She heard the door behind her open and close quietly.

Kenzi pulled away from her and wiped her eyes with her hand when she noticed Hale and Dyson. "What are they going to do to him?"

"They'll have a brainwasher convince them none of this ever happened, and be released," Dyson told her.

"Even all… That?" She asked and gestured to the room, where Dvorkin was still sitting against the wall where he had been thrown.

Hale nodded apologetically. "It's not an exact science," he said.

All four were didn't speak for a long time, contemplating the injustice of the whole ordeal. The silence hung in the air like a stormcloud. Finally, Dyson asked, "Do you want to press charges?"

The question was extremely unexpected. The idea that Dvorkin could go to jail for what he had done had barely even crossed her mind. While the thought was attractive, Kenzi had enough of a sense of reality to know that it was unlikely she would win the case. She shook her head no.

"There's no evidence," she said. "The last time was seven years ago. And even if I did have a chance, I just don't…" she trailed off and looked away. "I don't want to bring all that up again."

It was an understandable response. There was absolutely no reason to force a survivor to relive her multiple rapes in front of a bunch of strangers and hope that they would believe her over him. On the other hand, no one the room felt comfortable allowing Dvorkin to get off scot-free. The idea insulted their sense of justice.

Hale suddenly lifted his head sharply and snapped his fingers. "I got it," he said. "The Tellem we were going to use to brainwash them."

The other three looked at him in confusion.

"Tellem are powerful creatures that can manipulate the mind. Originally we were going to have our friend, our side, brainwash the gang members so we could let them back out," the siren explained.

"You were just going to let them get away with all that?" Bo asked incredulously.

"We were going to use the information we had against them to lock them up in a human prison," Dyson told her. "But what I don't understand is how the Tellem helps us in this… situation."

"They can also place memories into brains that weren't there before," Hale said. "What if we shared Kenzi's memories with Dvorkin—from her perspective?"

The others' eyes widened in a way that could have been considered comical if it were another situation. What Hale was proposing was perhaps the best and the worst punishment for a rapist. Instead of having the memories of him exerting power over someone smaller, he would have the memories of someone being completely powerless while he violated her. The contradiction alone would drive him mad, not to mention the feelings of helplessness he would experience. It was brilliant.

/

"I'm sorry."

Kenzi looked at her friend, mid-bite of a slice of pizza. "Hunh?"

"I was kind of insensitive when I brought up Dvorkin that first time. I should've just let it go when you told me to." Bo reached across the table to grab her drink. "I was just so angry."

Kenzi's brow furrowed in confusion and she placed the slice back on the paper towel she'd been using instead of a plate. "At me?" she asked.

Bo glanced up sharply. "Of course not," she scoffed. "Kenzi, what he did to you was unforgivable, but it wasn't your fault. You should know that by now, you've been hanging around with me long enough to know that sex should never be used as a punishment!"

The smaller woman smirked. "I know. It's just—hard, you know? Like, logically I understand all of that. But I just start feeling dirty and used whenever I think about him too long."

Bo looked her friend directly in the eyes. She wanted this message to get through to her. "Kenz, you're not dirty, and you're not used. You're not damaged. You are a whole, beautiful person. You're my best friend." The succubus smiled playfully. "And if you don't believe that, you're a dumbass!"

"I love you, Bobo," Kenzi returned the grin.

"I love you too. Now can we please talk about what we're going to do about this whole memories thing? It's up to you, you know," Bo said as she began cleaning up the counter.

"You don't think it's too… Cruel?"

Bo turned from the sink to glare daggers at her friend, which gave Kenzi all the answer she needed.

"Right. Stupid question. But what if he feels the need to lash out at someone else?" Kenzi thought about her two little half-brothers. Well, they wouldn't be so little now, they'd be in their early to mid-teens. She felt a pang of guilt about leaving them without protection from their father. Her 15-year-old self hadn't even thought about the possibility that he would redirect his abuse at the young boys, or God, even her mom.

"Kenz? Did you hear me?" Bo's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"I'm sorry, Bo. What did you say?" No use worrying about those possibilities now.

"I said that Dyson and Hale were going to collar the guys for the massive amount of cocaine they found in the apartment with the nymph. They're going to make it look like a drug bust," Bo explained. "With any luck, Dvorkin will be put away for at least six to eight years."

The older woman must have deciphered the pained expression that crossed her friend's face, because she quickly followed up on her previous sentence. "He'll also have monthly check-ups on him until he dies, courtesy of our favorite detectives."

Kenzi relaxed. It wasn't a watertight plan, but it would make her feel better for at least the next six to eight years.

"Okay," she decided abruptly. "Let's do it."

/

Hale introduced Kenzi and Bo to the Tellem that would transfer Kenzi's memories to Dvorkin the next day and left the room shortly afterward, presumably to take care if some last-minute details. She was short woman, with deep black skin and bouncy, curly hair. She extended a hand to both women, smiling widely.

"I'm Mara," she said. Her voice was rough, but her tone was sweet. "Here's how this is going to work. We're going to knock the guy out, then you and I will join hands. I'll take your memories and transplant them into his brain."

"Will I still have my memories?" Kenzi wasn't fond of them, but having a big blank space where her memories used to be would freak her the hell out.

"Of course, dear," Mara assured her. "They may become clearer though, due to revisiting them in order to transfer them."

Kenzi shrugged. She already knew what happened, and she didn't really care about the clarity of her memories. "That's not a problem."

"Are you sure?" Bo asked her quickly. Kenzi nodded.

Mara smiled warmly at the two of them. "We should get started," she said, leading the way toward the room where Dvorkin was being held. Hale and Dyson were already waiting for them outside of the door.

"You ready for this, lil' momma?" Hale asked her as they opened the door.

I wouldn't be doing this if I weren't," she replied, stepping through. The first thing she noticed was that her stepfather was lying unconscious on the concrete floor. She gaped at Hale in confusion.

"Lauren administered a strong sedative," Dyson supplied before Kenzi had the chance to ask.

"And he'll stay asleep through the whole thing?" She really wasn't interested in dealing with him anymore than she already had. If she never saw him again in her life, it would be too soon.

Dyson glanced at her. "It was a _strong _sedative," he emphasized. "And we're all here. Don't worry."

"I'm not worried," she said quickly. Dyson and Bo shared a look, but neither said anything.

Mara knelt down next to Dvorkin, placing a hand on his forehead. She motioned for Kenzi to join her on the floor. The two women clasped hands, while Bo moved closer to Kenzi.

"Don't," Mara warned, her eyes staring off into nothingness. "If you make physical contact with her, we may accidentally transfer some of your memories."

The brunette succubus quickly backed away, standing a few feet's distance. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other anxiously as Mara's eyes glowed white. Pale light sparked where Kenzi and the Tellem's hands met, jumped along Mara's skin, down her other arm and into Dvorkin's head. He groaned pathetically and his eyes twitched beneath the lids, but he didn't wake up.

"Daddy stop, please," he whimpered almost incoherently, rolling his head back and forth like he was in pain. Kenzi looked away from him, shielding herself from the looks she knew her friends were giving her. Dyson's mouth was set in a straight line, and he was glaring coldly at the sleeping man on the ground.

After several long minutes the twitching began to cease and the soft light faded from Mara's dark skin. The woman blinked several times to rid her eyes of the orange glow, and she turned to Kenzi. "You did well," she said, squeezing the younger woman's hand before standing gracefully to her feet. "He may wake up soon, so it would be wise if you left."

Kenzi stood as well, forcing herself to smile at her friends.

"So, alcohol?"

/

About half an hour later, after Bo and Kenzi had left the compound to have dinner and get ready for the Dal, Hale noticed Dvorkin beginning to come to. He was back in the cell they had previously housed him in, and the siren had been checking in on him every so often. The legal process for the other gang members was progressing nicely, and it would help the case to have Dvorkin's (perhaps forced) confession as soon as possible. Hale sent his partner a brief text telling him to come down to the cell.

The scrawny man sat up and his hand immediately flew to his head. He moaned in pain.

"Killer headache?" Hale asked with a grin.

Dvorkin glared. "The hell did you do to me?" He snapped. He suddenly closed his eyes and began to shake violently. Tears leaked from his eyes and he tried to wipe them away.

"That fucking worthless whore!" He yelled as tears began to stream down his cheeks. "How did she do this?"

Dyson chose that moment to walk in, and witnessed a change that seemed to come over Dvorkin. The human man bawled again. "Please stop," he cried. "Don't hurt me!"

The shifter looked in utter bewilderment at Hale, who could only shrug. "He must be experiencing the memories all at once," he suggested. "It could be wreaking havoc on his brain."

It was like watching the transformation of Jekyll and Hyde. It was painful to watch when he was clearly reliving Kenzi's memories, and infuriating when he started screaming that he was going to kill her. As the detectives overcame their curiosity and shock, they hoisted Dvorkin to his feet, handcuffed him, and dragged him downtown to the 49th District.

/

Trick poured both Bo and Kenzi another shot of rum, which they downed at the exact same time. Lauren sat a few seats over so as not to get hit when they began to "talk with their hands", nursing a margarita and smiling amusedly. Hale and Dyson drank their beers over by the pool table, glancing over at the two girls at the bar who were well on their way to getting absolutely shitfaced every now and then to make sure they didn't hurt themselves or any of the other patrons.

The activity in the bar started to die down a little after 1 A.M., and the group decided it might me time to get Bo and Kenzi home. As they helped the girls into Lauren's car, Kenzi went around drunkenly giving everyone hugs and thanking them for "not leaving her".

"Never," Dyson told her, speaking for everyone. Kenzi just giggled and tried to fasten her seatbelt.


End file.
